Having a pressure cooker is not illegal, lawyer for Saudi traveler says

May 14, 2013

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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

A man who arrived at Detroit Metro Airport on Saturday with a pressure cooker in his luggage will stay behind bars for now, but his newly hired attorney said having the device does not make him a criminal.

Hussain Al Khawahir, who is accused of willfully and knowingly using an altered Saudi Arabian passport with missing pages and making a false statement to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection enforcement officer about the pressure cooker, appeared Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit and waived his right to a detention hearing, which would determine whether he would stay locked up or be released.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection put a hold on Al Khawahir and even if he was released on bond in the criminal case, he would remain in custody because of the hold, his attorney James Howarth said.

“He hasn’t done anything,” Howarth said after the brief hearing.

During his court appearance, Al Khawahir wore green jail garb and stood next near his Arabic interpreter and attorney, who said he was hired Monday afternoon by a law firm in New York.

Pressure cookers were used in last month’s Boston Marathon bombings, but Al Khawahir didn’t know anything about that, Howarth said.

Al Khawahir spoke to U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Randon through his interpreter telling him he has 12 years of education and he reads and understands Arabic.

“The combination of facts, including an altered passport and false statements, raised concerns,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in a statement. “Although we never want to jump to conclusions, we have a duty to conduct an appropriate investigation to protect the public.”

According to a criminal complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Al Khawahir flew from Saudi Arabia via Amsterdam and initially told customs officers he brought the pressure cooker for a nephew because pressure cookers aren’t sold in America. The man then changed his story, saying his nephew purchased a pressure cooker in America before, but it was cheap and broke after the first use, the complaint said.

Customs officers said page 33/34 had been removed from his passport. Al Khawahir, who said he would be visiting his nephew in Toledo, said he did not know how the page was removed from the passport, the complaint said.

“The defendant stated that the passport was locked in a box that only he, his wife and three minor children have access to, in his home,” it said.

“Did the pages fall out? I don’t know,” Howarth said.

He said Al Khawahir does not speak English and likely was misunderstood when speaking with officials at the airport. It’s common for people from Saudi Arabia to travel with pressure cookers because of how they prepare food, he said.

On Monday, his nephew Nasser Almarzooq said the arrest was a misunderstanding and that he wanted the high-quality device to cook lamb, the Associated Press reported.